Sorting table or file-distributing device



Dec. 25. 1923. 1,478,876 D. G. MCCARTY SORTING TABLE 0R FILEDISTRIBUTING DEVICE Filed June 8. 1920 Fig.1.

Min 88- ?J In Us nt or.

Q? Dwight w carty. .By, Attorneys. v

Patented Dec. 25, 1923. I i

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

DWIGHT G. MCGARTY, F EMMETSBURGr/IOWA.

SORC EING TABLE OR FILE-DISTRIBUTING DEVICE.

Application filed June 8, 1920. Serial No. 387,449.

To all whom it may concern: partments 'C and D will conveniently re- Beit known that I, DWIGHT G. MoCARTY, ceive letter size papers.

a citizen of the United States, and resi- The ends of the box have theirupper dent of Emmetsburg, in the county of Palo surfaces inclined fromtheir front portions Alto and State of Iowzuhave invented a rearwardlyand upwardly, as shown in Fig- 00 certain new and useful Sorting Tableorure 2, and the back of the box is higher File-Distributing Device, ofwhich the fol-, than the front of the box. The compartlowing is aspecification. ments B and D have a false bottom 16, The object of myinvention is to prowhich is so arranged that thefiles or papers vide adevice of simple. and inexpensive in the rear compartments will projectabove as construction, for distributing correspondthose in the frontcompartments. ence for convenience and economy of time For each of thecompartments I provide in filing. a. series of separator sheets E,comprising With this and other objects in View, my separate sheets 17each preferably being invention consists in the construction, arprovidedwith an indicating tab. 18 on its rangement and combination of thevarious upper edge. These tabs, 18 may have 011- parts of my device,whereby the objects conthem the' letters of the alphabet, or anytemplated are attained, as hereinafter more other indexing indices orlegends.

fully set forth, pointed out in my claim and The sheets 17 are providednear their 20 illustrated in the accompanying drawings, lower edgeswithregistering openings 19,

' in which: I and, spaced therefrom, with registering Figure 1 shows ,afront elevation of a Openings 20. I preferably extend a cordcorrespondence distributing device embody 21 through all of theopenings, 19, and v in r my invention. then back through all of theopenings 20,

25 *igure 2 shows a perspective view of a and theends of the cord may betied into receiving cabinet or box forming part of a knot 22. It will beseenthat the knot-'22 my invention. i may be so adjusted as to allowmore or Figure 3 shows a front elevation of the less slack in the cord,as may be desir dcorrespondence separating sheets; and In the practicaluse of my improved sort- 30 Figure 4 shows a side elevation of theingtable or file distributing device, letdevice shown in Figure 3. ters,documents and papers of'all kinds can In the accompanying drawings Ihave be quickly and efficiently filed. All papers used the referencenumeral 10 to indicate to be filed are first placed in a file tray orgenerally a supporting stand or table. The basket, ready 1 g. e papersare table 10 preferably has the two drop leaves thrown in the basketduring theday as they so 11 and 12, at opposite sides, which leavescome, without any regard to the file in may be raised when the device isbeing which they are ultimately to be placed. used, for furnishing spaceupon which letl/Vhen the time for filing arrives,the letters ters andpapers may be laid out for conand papers are taken from this tray or 40venience in handling. basket and placed on the sorting table (Fig-Resting on the table 10 is a case 13, which ure 1) before the operat r.h omparthas the form of a box or the like, of greater Inent box (Figurel 2) is divided into comlength than width, which box is providedpartments, each compartment correspond- With a vertical partition 14:running from ing to a file in the office system. The box end to end, andpreferably with a transcontains one compartment for each office versepartition 15 extending from front to file, and these compartments are oflegal rear and located nearer one end than the cap size or, letter size,dependingupon other. I whether the papers to be filed are to be Thesepartitions divide the box into four filed in a cap size file or a lettersize file.

50 compartments, A, B, C and D. The com- The separator sheets or guidecards (Fig- 05 partments A and B are longer than the ure also correspondto the guide cards compartments 0 and D, and the compartin therespective office files, whether alphaments are preferably of such sizethat the betioal, numerical, geographical or any compartments A and Bwill conveniently other classification. Each compartment of 56 receivelegal cap size papers, and the comthe box is labeled to correspond tothe file 11o which it represents in the ofice filing system. Y

The operator having before her the letters and papers to be filed, takesthe letters or papers from the .topvo't' the file in the order in whichthey come, anddistributes them behind the properguidesin the propercompartments of the sorting table. The

place where each is distributed, corresponds I therefore with the folderor guide in which it willultimately be filed in the proper oifice file.After all the letters and papers have been sorted into the propercompartments on the sorting table, the sorting table is rolled to theofiice files, and theseparator sheets or guides are taken from the firstcompartment corresponding to thefirstfile, and laid on the sorting tableat the left side of the operator in the position as shown in" Figure l.The operator then turns down the separator sheets or guides asv inFigure l, turning-them the same as the leaves of a book. As the-- firstsheet is turned 1 down any letters or papers in that compartment arefiled by the operator pulling outthe drawer of thefile and placing thoseletters or papers in the proper place in the file. The operator proceedsturning down the leaves and filing the papers straight on through thefile in the order in which they come. is completed, the separator sheetsare returned to the compartment, and the separator sheets taken fromanother compartment and the papers therein-filedin another file in thesame way. This oper'ation'is continued until the filing is complete.

By this method, and with the aid of this novel and improved device, forsorting and distributing the papers to be filed, the routine task offiling is accomplished, 'expeditiously and etliciently, This methodavoids going back and forth through the ofiice files,

-pu'lling out drawers again and again and cries-crossing back and forthwith' -consequent loss of time and energy, asis the case Byunder theordinary method o'f' filing. this'device, all papers to be filed in oneplace are brought together so that they are all filed with one operationat one time. f This device is adaptable to any filing system whether forjust ordinary correspondence tfiled alphabetically, or. a large filingsystem containing many difierent files or departments. By the use ofthis improved and novel device, thessorting of the letters or papers isrendered simple, accurate and speedy, and when once sorted, the filinggoes progressively, straight through the files,

without confusion, delay or wasteful hunting to enable the principles ofefficiency to be applied to the routine work of filingand by itsconvenience, simplicity and novel use oi improved appliances 1teliminates waste time and energy andcontmbutes materially to thesolvingof the'practical problems of Office filing.

Some changes may be made 111 the-construction and arrangement of my1mproved device Without departing from the real'spirit and purpose of mylnvention, and it is my intention to cover by my claim anymodified formsof structure or use of mechanical equivalents which may be reasonablyincluded within its scope.

I claim as my invention:

In a sorting device of the class described, a container having aplurality of rear compartments of different sizes as to width, aplur'alityof similar forward compartments,

a group of separator sheets for each compartment, each group beingfreely removable I from its compartment, a flexible member extendedthrough eachgroup of sheets in the form of a loop, whereby the sheets ofeach group are freely slidable upon two stretches of each flexiblemember, each rearward compa rtment having a higher bot-tom than eachforward compartment.

Des Moines, Iowa, February 16, 1920, DWIGHT G. MCC'ARTY.

